Labourer to be sentenced for killing young jockeys in fire

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loosehead

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This is from todays Irish Examiner
A labourer will be sentenced today for killing two promising young jockeys when he torched a block of flats in a drunken revenge attack.

Peter Brown started the fire after being refused entry to a party at flats in Norton, North Yorkshire, in September last year.

The blaze ripped through the block killing Jamie Kyne, 18, from Kiltrogue, Co Galway, Ireland, and Jan Wilson, 19, from Forfar, Scotland.

Brown, 37, of Brotherton, North Yorkshire, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter following a trial at Leeds Crown Court.

He was also acquitted of arson with intent to endanger life.

Brown, who chose not to give evidence at his trial, started the fire when he lit rubbish in the communal entrance to the Buckrose Court flats in Norton on September 5, 2009.

The court was told the father-of-one, who lived in a neighbouring block and was a former caretaker for the complex, started the fire as an act of revenge after he was refused entry to a party in one of the flats.

The jury heard he had a “prickly” relationship with the women who lived in the flat where the party was taking place.

Miss Wilson and Mr Kyne were in the flat above – a property which was rented by Mr Kyne and Ian Brennan, Miss Wilson’s boyfriend.

The court was told a drunken Brown used white spirit to set light to rubbish in the stairwell after he returned from drinking in local pubs in the early hours.

The fire quickly took hold as the stairwell acted like a chimney.

The fire forced many of the occupants to jump from the building or climb down drainpipes. Miss Wilson and Mr Kyne were trapped in the top-floor flat.

Brown will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court.



Read more: http://irishexaminer.com/breakingne...ung-jockeys-in-fire-485121.html#ixzz17hbTKgNL
 
I still don't understand how you cannot be guilty of attempting to endanger life when you deliberately set a blaze inside a dwelling, knowing full well that people are inside and above the fire, so that their escape down the blazing stairs would be impossible. Manslaughter puts this on a par with fatally knocking down a cyclist while using a mobile - which drew a sentence of a mere four years for such a case.
 
No, not quite - it's an indeterminate sentence, of which he must serve a minimum term of 7 1/2 years, less the time spent in custody. (Which was largely for his own safety.)

But he's in the same category as the husband of a work colleague of mine who shotgunned her to death (in the back, as she fled the house - not a little 'accident' or without attempting to take a life, I'd have thought). He got seven years, was out in 3 1/2, having successfully got the original charge of murder reduced because the judge decided to go with the defence's reasoning that he wasn't quite himself, due to be being depressed about a 'skin condition'. You just despair at times to see something resembling justice done.
 
It was a deliberate act of arson in a building where there were people and he knew there were people, how on earth can he possibly not have been found guilty on that charge? Unbelievable.
 
Alastair Down announced at the conclusion of Ch.4's broadcast that the judge found Brown still represented 'a considerable risk' to the public and that's why she's decided on not a sentence of 7 1/2 years, but a minimum of that amount, and an open-ended sentence. I think that's the best that can be done when the charge isn't murder and there's a mandatory 'life' sentence, which can mean 8 years only. This way, he could conceivably spend much longer banged up until someone decides he's no longer a threat.
 
He'll be in his early forties when he's released,Jamie and Jan,God rest their souls,will still be dead.I think that puts it in perspective.
Hopefully he will be watched like a hawk when he does come out as he strikes me as one that would commit another offence (given he's one of those who is fuelled by drink) and, as he will be on licence, he'll be thrown back in jail.
 
1 He was convicted of manslaughter no doubt because the jury could not be sure that he either intended to kill or to cause GBH

2 The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life

3 The sentence is an indeterminate sentence which means that the MINIMUM he will serve is the seven and a half years - and otherwise will not be released until he is considered no longer to be a risk to the public .
 
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